


Mayhem and Murder

by PyroJellyfish



Series: Future Fish: Cops and Crooks [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Angst, Bank Robbery, Detectives, M/M, Murder, Mystery, Post-Free! Eternal Summer, Sex, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:31:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6451996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PyroJellyfish/pseuds/PyroJellyfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After giving up on his dream of swimming in global competitions, Rin has finally found himself a new dream: joining his long term friend Sousuke as a homicide detective. His first week on the job is slow--until a bank robbery goes wrong and leaves an old friend dead. Now Rin and Sousuke have to solve the case before another heist leaves anyone else penniless--or murdered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to the Team

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome welcome! This is the first part of my Future Fish AU Series focused on Rin and Sousuke as homicide detectives. Though the story is set in Japan, all law enforcement procedures are based on the American police system (more specifically, the American crime drama police system, which is probably not 100% accurate lol) If you're interested, you can find the prequel oneshot [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6407947).  
> This chapter is just a short intro, but I promise they'll get longer and more interesting. If you enjoy it, feedback is always appreciated!

Rin Matsuoka is 23. He’s smart, handsome, and athletic. It’s been a little over two years since the accident that ruined his swimming career, and it’s been a long and arduous journey to get to where he is now, but he hasn’t felt this hopeful in a long time.

Hopeful, but nervous, too. He fidgets uncomfortably in his suit while he stands in the hallway outside the squad room, and he has a flashback to the day he had transferred to Iwatobi Elementary. He had stood nervously outside the classroom of his new school while the other children were seated, waiting for the teacher to call him into the room to introduce himself. He’d done the same thing when he’d gone to Australia for middle school, but it had felt different. Australia was totally foreign to him and he hadn’t known anyone when he first went there. In Iwatobi, there had been people in the class he had taken a liking too, and he had known that friends waited beyond the door. 

Just like now.

“Alright people, settle down and let’s meet our new rookie,” Rin heard the Lieutenant’s voice through the thick door, and inhaled bracingly. With a sweaty hand, he twisted the knob and walked in. 

Five pairs of eyes greeted him. One belonged to the Lieutenant, who nodded at Rin approvingly before turning back to the others in the room. 

“This is Rin Matsuoka, promoted to Detective last week and our new Homicide member.” Rin shuffled his feet awkwardly during this introduction, reluctant to meet the gazes of his new team members. The Lieutenant continued without noticing. 

“Matsuoka, meet Dr. Suki Ebina, our Medical Examiner. You’ll be working closely with her while you’re part of this department.” The woman indicated had dark, open eyes, and she met Rin’s look with an easy grace. 

“You just let me know if you have any questions,” she said to him, and he noted that she had a motherly aura about her. He smiled in acknowledgement of her offer. 

“This is Detective Masanobu Takita, and his partner, Detective Omitsu Yuhara, your seniors in the homicide squad.” The Lieutenant gestured to a brown-eyed man who was smiling pleasantly at Rin, followed by a blue-eyed woman who was eyeing him quizzically. Finally Rin’s eyes moved to the last person in the room as the Lieutenant swept through his introductions. 

Those blue-green eyes met his with the strong smile Rin had grown to rely on, and the smile on those lips was wide and welcoming. Rin felt his own lips opening in a responding grin. 

“I’m told you already know Detective Sousuke Yamazaki, who will be your partner. We take partners very seriously here in homicide—you face bigger threats than you did as a beat cop and we expect partners to have each other’s backs unconditionally. The safety of our people is one of the biggest priorities of the Iwatobi Police Department, as I’m sure you know.” The Lieutenant met Rin’s eyes as he said this, his gaze serious. Rin schooled his expression to hide the goofy grin that had greeted Sousuke, and nodded his understanding. 

“Good. Then I’ll let Detective Yamazaki show you around the department. Yamazaki, you know what to do?” 

Sousuke nodded, still grinning, and the Lieutenant grunted in satisfaction before disappearing into his office and shutting the door. Dr. Ebina immediately came over and shook Rin’s hand warmly before murmuring her goodbyes and taking her leave. 

The three other homicide detectives gathered around the redhead, smiling and clasping his hand one after the other. Sousuke held on longer than was strictly necessary, but his hand was comfortingly warm. Rin realized his were slick with nervous sweat, and surreptitiously wiped his palms on his pants when Sousuke let go. 

“Welcome to the club, kid,” Detective Takita said, slapping Rin sincerely on the back. Rin felt the vibrations thud through his rib cage from the force of it. “I’m sure we’ll get along just fine, but right now we’ll leave you to catch up with your new partner.” He winked, and Rin wondered what Sousuke had told them. “Don’t forget to brief him on the open files, Yamazaki. We’ll be at lunch.” The senior detective was ushering his partner out the door and tossed this over his shoulder to Sousuke as he went. 

“Will do, Takita. Catch you later,” said Sousuke in his familiar deep voice, and then the two were gone. 

There was a brief silence when Rin and Sousuke were left alone. Sousuke was the one to break it. 

“You finally made it.”

Rin glanced sharply at his best friend, but the taller man was joking. His expression looked serious, but his eyes were smiling. The redhead let out a chuckle. 

“Guess so. Took long enough.”

Now Sousuke was smiling openly. “You became a cop and were promoted to homicide detective in less than three years. That’s not very long.”

Rin shrugged, not sure what to say. Suddenly Sousuke’s shoulder knocked against his chin, and he grunted. The bigger man had pulled him into a bear hug, but released before Rin even had an opportunity to return the embrace. He briefly thought about initiating the secret handshake they’d had since elementary school, but Sousuke was already turning away. 

“Well let me show you around, and we’ll get you settled in,” he said, voice gruff. Then his tone softened. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up with each other later.”


	2. Blast from the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backstory happens, and Rin runs into an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended on proof-reading this more thoroughly before posting...but I can't sleep and writing new material wasn't happening. So hopefully my 1am brain hasn't missed any glaring errors...Enjoy!

His first three days as part of the homicide squad went by quickly, despite having very little action. Sousuke showed him the ropes of being a homicide cop; they helped process the site of an unattended death (which turned out to simply be a heart attack), and they observed an autopsy in a neighboring district, which Dr. Ebina had been called in to assist with. They had even observed an interview of one of the Illegal Narcotics Unit’s suspects, since there were no ongoing homicide investigations. 

Despite having been assigned to the department a year previously, Sousuke still went through the initiation activities with his best friend. He’d been deemed ready to train up a partner, but when homicide wasn’t busy the older detectives would take point, and share their insights and experience with the two ex-swimmers. 

The four detectives were at lunch, getting to know each other while there were no active cases open. Sousuke had told the two seniors quite a bit about Rin when it had become apparent that the redhead was a candidate to join homicide, as it turned out. They quizzed him attentively about his life-long dream, the accident that destroyed his swimming career, and his subsequent decision to become a cop. In return, he learned quite a bit about them. 

Takita was open and friendly, with short-cropped hair somewhere between light brown and blonde. He was the oldest member of homicide, and had been solving murders for twenty three years. Before that he’d been a member of the Illegal Narcotics unit, involved in heavy undercover operations and drug busts. Rin found it hard to picture the tall, kind-faced man in some of the situations he described. In many ways, Takita reminded the redhead of his old friend Makoto. 

Yuhara had been a homicide detective in Tokyo but had transferred to Iwatobi eight years ago, for a change of scenery. She sounded somewhat defensive in her explanation of her reassignment, and Rin suspected there was more to the tale than she was letting on. Yuhara was small and mousy, with dark hair and deep blue eyes, but she was fiery when on a case. Rin resolved to stay on her good side. 

Neither detective had lived out of the country, and were particularly curious about Rin’s experiences while living in Australia. 

“You were attacked by a shark?” Takita said in disbelief at that point in Rin’s narrative of his previous life. Yuhara said nothing, but her eyebrows were raised. “I thought Australia had nets and things to keep sharks away from the beaches.”

Rin nodded. “Many beaches do have shark nets, but not all. The nets aren’t 100% effective at keeping sharks out, either. They don’t connect to the shore, and are submerged a little ways below the surface, so there’s space above and around them. But they keep most sharks away from the beaches, so there’s less risk than there would be otherwise.”

“Don’t shark nets kill the sharks?” Yuhara murmured while Takita processed what Rin had said. The redhead sighed. 

“They are designed to catch sharks and hold them in place until they drown, yes. This decreases the local populations and further reduces the risk of a shark attacking a human. It’s a fairly controversial process.”

“I can see why,” Sousuke rumbled from his seat next to Rin. “Don’t other animals get caught in them? Turtles and dolphins and the like?” 

“They can, but most of the nets in Australia have acoustic noise makers attached to encourage such creatures to avoid the area. Some beaches have additional measures in place that are theoretically supposed to catch sharks but no other animals. Plus, the nets are removed during the whale migration season.”

“So there’s just a bunch of big nets off of beaches in Australia with dead rotting carcasses in them?” Takita sounded morbidly fascinated. “Yuck. Wouldn’t that just draw more sharks?”

Rin snorted slightly. “No, there’s regular maintenance and cleaning done on the nets. Sometimes a live animal may be found in time to release it, but a lot of the time they’re fatally injured. Most animals drown in the nets and the corpses are removed.”

“You sound almost sad. Didn’t a shark ruin your swimming dream? If it had died in a net, you would apparently be winning world championships now.” Yuhara’s tone was detached and clinical—much like she had sounded while explaining the interrogation Rin and Sousuke had observed the previous day.

“The shark just thought I was some sort of prey animal. It didn’t attack me out of malice, and it didn’t even stick around once it realized I wasn’t what it thought I was. I only caught a glimpse of its fin before it took off. Plus, the shark nets seem unnecessarily brutal to me.”

“Rin has a soft side for everything, even terrifying sea creatures,” Sousuke told the other two with a sidelong glance at his friend. “He probably cries over shark deaths.” Rin punched the dark-haired man in the shoulder, and Sousuke laughed. The two senior detectives smiled indulgently. 

“So I’m guessing neither of your injuries was fully treatable,” Takita said after a few minutes of silence had passed. “Otherwise you’d just have gone through physical therapy and kept swimming, since you had to go through intense PT to pass the physical exam for law enforcement.”

Rin nodded, but was content to let Sousuke answer. Even now, after his recovery, he found it somewhat difficult to talk about the months after the shark attack. 

“Swimming is too repetitive on both the shoulder and the leg,” Sousuke was telling Takita, who listened intently while nursing his last cup of coffee, the remains of his lunch sitting in front of him. “Physical therapy brought both of us back to pretty much normal functionality, but repetitive strain on the injuries would likely cause them to break down again.”

Takita nodded, glancing at Rin, who was silently picking at his lunch scraps. “I had a buddy once who had to undergo intensive physical therapy for a back injury. It’s actually kind of a funny story,” he said, and started telling them the amusing anecdote about a man he’d known in the Academy. The conversation became more lighthearted after that, and Rin left lunch in quite a cheerful mood. 

***

They were riding in Sousuke’s unmarked car later that afternoon. The bigger man was driving, Rin seated quietly in the passenger’s seat, lost in thought. Sousuke was humming vaguely, content in their silence.

Rin was grateful to his best friend. He’d gotten to know the dark-haired man even better after his accident. Sousuke had been one of his only contacts during his recovery, and had even flown down to Australia to stay with Rin, offering moral and physical support. Rin doubted he would have survived to become a cop if Sousuke hadn’t been so supportive. The fear and uncertainty had paralyzed him, and he’d sunk to a low he’d never thought was possible. 

Sighing, he shifted in his seat. The slick leather creaked underneath him. He rarely thought back to that time, but the earlier conversation at lunch had brought it all crashing back. 

“Stop brooding,” Sousuke rumbled, not looking at him. 

Rin glanced at him and away again. “I’m not.”

“Bullshit.” The curse was softened by the small smile on the bigger man’s lips. “You’re always brooding when you get that look on your face.”

Rin was silent. Sousuke had gotten to know him better in the aftermath of the accident as well, but he’d always seemed able to anticipate what Rin was thinking. Even after all these years of friendship, the redhead still found it uncanny. 

“You’re worried whether or not you made the right decision, and if it’s too late to reverse it,” Sousuke continued. “Talking at lunch stirred up old memories, and now you’re feeling guilty.”

Rin let out a harsh exhale. “How do you always know what I’m thinking?” Sousuke just smiled, eyes still focused on the road. There was a moment of silence until it became obvious Rin wasn’t going to say any more.

“You can still get in touch with them, you know. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you, and they’d understand why you haven’t contacted them until now.” Sousuke’s tone was careful, non-judgmental, encouraging even. 

“What would I say? It’s been two years, and I’m a different person now. So are they, probably.”

“None of you are that different. Not in any way that matters.” Sousuke slowed the car to a stop in response to a red light, and turned to face his best friend. “You regained your friendship after you went to Australia the first time. Makoto asks about you every time I talk to him, and he says Rei and Nagisa want to know how you’re doing, too. Haru misses you, too.”

Rin flinched. He didn’t want to think about Haru. Sousuke watched him for a few more moments, before sighing turning back to the road. “Anyway, why don’t we get dinner? We haven’t had much of a chance to talk in the last year or so. We can discuss the others later, if you want.”

The redhead agreed, but he could tell Sousuke wanted an actual answer, not just an affirmative nod of his head. 

“That sounds nice. I never did get to tell you about my experience at the Academy. And you need to tell me about the cases you solved before I joined homicide. Did Yuhara really throw a chair across the room to capture that sexual predator that they were chasing, like Takita said?”

Sousuke laughed, and the rest of the drive to the restaurant passed uneventfully. 

The pair ultimately decided on seafood for dinner, so Sousuke drove them to The Catch, a reputable eatery near the edge of town. The two were seated at a dimly lit booth that seemed almost too small for Sousuke’s bulk, and had quickly given their orders to the server. They continued chatting animatedly until their food arrived. 

The booths were hemmed in by frosted glass windows, and Rin could watch the comings and goings of ambiguously-shaped reflections over Sousuke’s head. He was able to make out colors and general shapes, and caught the whiff of hot food as a platter-bearing image with a tall white head approached. Chef’s hat, Rin decided. 

“Looks like our meals have arrived,” he said smilingly to Sousuke, but then realized the dark-haired man had a look of horror on his face. He whipped around, and found himself staring at a familiar figure in a chef’s coat and hat, plate-laden tray carried in one hand beside his shoulder. 

“Rin!” Haru said, looking just as flabbergasted as Rin himself felt. The tray tilted sideways dangerously, and Sousuke jumped up to help the shorter man steady it. Haru’s eyes flicked to him in acknowledgement before returning to Rin. His expression held shock, and questions. 

Rin wasn’t ready to answer them. “Bathroom,” he croaked, and darted out of the booth. 

In the dubious safety of the men’s room, he splashed water over his face and braced himself on the counter. What was Haru doing here? He’d kept swimming—Rin had watched every recording of his races, though the detective wouldn’t admit it to anyone but himself. They were hard to watch, because they reminded him that _he_ should be there with Haru. Instead, he’d been stuck in varying types of therapy for longer than he cared to remember. 

The door opened and Rin caught a glimpse of dark hair in the mirror. He spun to face the door, but it was only Sousuke. 

“Not to criticize your ability to reason under pressure, but the men’s room isn’t the most effective place to hide from another man,” his best friend said, folding his arms on his chest. Then he sighed. “I’m sorry. I had no idea he would be here.”

“I know,” Rin said, his voice still sounding raspy. “It’s fine.”

Sousuke watched him for a minute, assessing his state of mind. Rin’s panic was calming now, and he realized with resignation that he should have expected to run into someone from the old days, being assigned to the Iwatobi police force as he was. 

“You should talk to him.” The statement was delivered firmly, and Rin winced. Sousuke had made it clear that he thought Rin should have contacted his old friends during physical therapy, and again when he had entered the Academy. Rin had been too afraid to listen to the teal-eyed man, and the result was this awkward situation he was in now. 

A tense silence, and then he sighed. “Yeah.” And he reluctantly followed Sousuke out of the restroom.


	3. Familiar Faces in Unexpected Situations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin has an awkward dinner meeting, some more backstory happens, and the plot officially thickens.

The morning after Rin’s ill-timed encounter with Haru found him sitting at his desk, slugging back coffee. He’d stayed awake most of the night fretting and thinking—brooding, as Sousuke would tell him—and he was nearly too tired to function. Assuming they didn’t get called in to a case, Yuhara and Takita were going to take them on a tour of Evidence Management. They’d already briefly seen where to take evidence for a case, but today’s tour was supposed to include the old file storage facility as well as the large locked room where seized firearms were taken and broken down before being shipped off to be melted down. In the meantime, however, Rin was hell-bent on imbibing as much caffeine as he physically could. 

Dinner the previous evening had been very awkward, to put it mildly.

Sousuke and Rin had sat across from Haru. The two detectives picked at their food—played with it, really, at least in Rin’s case—and Haru had taken his chef’s hat off and placed it on the table in front of him. He kept fidgeting with it, but Rin didn’t mind. It gave him something to look at besides Haru’s face. 

“Yamazaki tells me you’re both homicide detectives now,” the stoic black-haired man had said quietly after a few taciturn moments had passed. Rin’s eyes cut towards Sousuke, who merely shrugged. The redhead nodded. 

A few more moments of silence, broken by the soft scrape of utensils against plates. More fidgeting. 

“You could have called,” Haru said then, his tone sulking, and Rin was suddenly taken back to that day in middle school. The day he and Haru had raced, and he had given up swimming—the first time, he thought ruefully. After that day things had gone downhill, only to get better again when he encountered the Iwatobi Swim Club in high school. Despite his discomfort now, despite the years of no communication between them, and the fact that he had no idea how to talk to Haru anymore, Rin knew one thing: he wasn’t going to let things get worse after today.

“I should have. I was scared,” he blurted, louder than he intended. Haru’s eyes flicked to his in surprise, and then returned to their minute scrutiny of the chef’s hat. Sousuke was silent. Rin took a deep breath before continuing. 

“I got…into an accident. I was injured, and I had to stop swimming. I was ashamed and I didn’t want to talk to anyone, so I didn’t. Only Sousuke. And Gou, of course. But no one else.” He realized he was babbling, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “And I was scared to talk to you anyway, because of that letter and my misunderstanding.” He was blushing now, remembering his embarrassment and embarrassed all over again by bringing it up. “And then it just seemed too late and I figured everyone had their own lives anyway…” He trailed off. Haru was scowling at him. Rin had rarely seen him look so angry. 

“Almost three years.” The stockier man’s voice was low and harsh. “Almost three years since I’ve talked to you last, and you say it’s because you were afraid that no one but Sousuke would understand or be able to help you. Why do you do this? You hit a slump and you think no one else is there for you when you should respect us enough to trust that we’ll support you when you need it.” The chef was practically shouting at the end of this speech, and his face was turning a dark red. “You used to call us friends. And then when the going got tough you turned your back on us to live in your own little world of self-pity and hatred.”

Rin was shocked. He was trying to apologize, and now Haru was yelling at him for it? His mind scrambled for something to say, something to deflect the other man’s rage, but came up empty. 

“Uh…chef?” Came a timid voice from behind Rin. He turned, startled. Their server was standing there, looking flustered. “We need you in the kitchen, if you’re available.”

Haru glared at the server, who paled but stood his ground. Then he scowled at the hat he was fiddling with on the table, and with a last glower at Rin jammed it on his head. Without another word, he strode back into the kitchen, leaving the two detectives sitting at the table in silence. The server hovered a moment longer, and then apparently decided they didn’t need anything from him and went scurrying off. 

“That went well,” Sousuke remarked after a few minutes had gone by and neither of them had moved. He seemed rather awestruck at Haru’s outburst. “Well, if you’re done eating, I’ll drive you home if you want.” 

“Rin? Rin!” Sousuke’s voice brought the redhead back to the present, and he realized he was sitting at his desk in the police headquarters, cup of coffee held half-tilted in front of him, eyes glazed over. His reminiscence had been vivid, despite the fact that he had replayed the scene more than once since it had happened. He blinked and looked at his partner. 

“Sorry, what?”

Sousuke looked amused. “Lost in thought, are we?” Rin blushed, and Sousuke laughed. “Never mind, I’m sure I know what you were thinking about. But Takita and Yuhara are almost ready for us.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course.” Rin stood up hurriedly, but paused in the act of pushing in his chair when Sousuke spoke hesitantly. 

“I think he overreacted out of shock at seeing you. But I think he’d be willing to talk to you if you’d approach him again.”

The red-head looked at his friend. The serious man looked unsure of himself, something that Rin had rarely seen. Though quiet and somewhat brooding, Sousuke was almost always cocksure and stable.

Rin looked away, fiddling with things on his desk. He felt Sousuke was right, but had no idea how to go about what his friend suggested. “I have no idea how to get ahold of him,” he mumbled, idly straightening the pens on his desk so they were aligned in parallel rows. 

Sousuke cleared his throat. The sound was so uncharacteristic that Rin looked at him again, hand poised above the notepad he’d been reaching for. To his shock, the taller man looked downright embarrassed. 

“That’s why I took the liberty of getting his phone number for you. And…texted him an invitation to dinner tomorrow. From your phone.”

“You WHAT?” 

“Arranged dinner. He thinks you want to meet him to apologize for the last three years. Which I know you do, so I just made things easier on you.” Sousuke sounded almost defensive. 

“How the hell am I supposed to apologize for three years’ worth of time?” Rin yelped. 

“Hey, are you two coming or not?” Said Takita from the doorway. “Hurry it up already.”

Rin wheeled around and followed the senior agent out the door, mind whirling. Sousuke clomped along behind him. 

“I know you don’t feel prepared,” he said in a low voice, meant to carry to Rin’s ears only. “But a good first step would be just to go to dinner.”

*

The time until his dinner date with Haru went by too quickly. Rin’s recollection of the Evidence tour the day before was hazy, and Rin couldn’t even remember what he’d had for breakfast, or if he’d even eaten breakfast. But suddenly Sousuke was ushering him out of HQ to his dinner date. It turned out the teal-eyed man had made reservations for them at a fancy, expensive restaurant in town. 

“The more formal you make this, the more sincere your apology will seem,” he had told Rin when the redhead raised his objection. “You’re basically making a first impression all over again. You want it to be over dollar burgers or something a little more high class?”

Reluctantly, Rin had agreed. 

Now he was sitting in an upscale restaurant of the type he never visited, fidgeting nervously at his table while he waited for Haru to show up. He didn’t look out of place—detectives didn’t have to wear uniforms, but usually wore business casual clothes to keep up the professional appearances desired by the department—but he couldn’t help but feeling like he stood out. Most of the other patrons were older, obviously well-to-do business-men and –women. 

Haru walked in the door, and spoke briefly with the hostess. She gestured to Rin, and turned her attention away as Haru’s gaze swept past her. As he approached, Rin stood, feeling awkward. He had a sudden vision of how he must look to the other customers—like a shy young boy meeting his first date. The image nearly made him laugh out loud, and he had to fight the maniacal grin that threatened to contort his face. He was half-tempted to hold Haru’s chair for the swimmer simply for the hilarity of it. 

Haru’s blue eyes pierced his, searching his soul with the calmness of the sea. The laughter faded from where it was bubbling up in his throat. _Be serious, Rin. This is an apology._

The black-haired man sat, his face unreadable, but then, his face was almost always unreadable. Rin took his seat as well. “Thanks for coming,” he said, suddenly unsure of how to begin. Haru merely grunted in response. 

This was going to be harder than Rin thought.

“So…uh, how’ve you been?” The redhead asked with forced cheerfulness. Haru shrugged. Helpful. 

“I was surprised to see you working as a chef at The Catch,” he tried again. “You’re still swimming as well, right?” Damn. That was a topic he hadn’t wanted to bring up just yet. 

Haru nodded. 

Well, okay, that was one way to avoid an awkward topic. But seriously, how was he supposed to apologize if Haru wouldn’t communicate like a normal human being?

Maybe a direct approach would be best. “Look,” he sighed. “I’m sorry. About yesterday, about not contacting you when I got back to Iwatobi, about not contacting you after I was injured, everything. I know that doesn’t make up for it, but I can’t change how I acted.”

Haru murmured vaguely. What the hell was his problem?

Rin had just opened his mouth to demand an answer when Haru (finally) spoke. “I’m sorry I blew up on you yesterday,” he stated softly. Rin shut his mouth with an audible clack. “But I don’t understand why you broke off all contact. We had to piece together what happened from what Yamazaki and Gou told us, and from the news. Do you know how it feels to find out someone you care about has been gravely injured because the news thinks it’s a great story? ‘Local Swimming Prodigy Near Death After Ferocious Attack.’ ‘Local Man’s Life-Long Dream Destroyed by Shark.’” 

“I’m sorry,” the redhead whispered again, appalled that he hadn’t thought of how his friends might find out. “I’m sure it was terrible to find out that way. I was stupid, and afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid…that I would break if I had to deal with anyone else’s pity,” Rin hissed, his voice almost cracking from emotion. He hated talking about this. 

“Everyone kept telling me how sorry they were that I couldn’t swim anymore, but that I should be grateful I was still alive. But all my life I’ve trained for swimming on the world stage. I was lost, and I didn’t know what to do or where to go. The only thing I was ever good at was suddenly not an option and I didn’t have a backup plan. I was afraid to face everyone with my failure.” Tears were streaming openly down his face now, but he didn’t bother trying to hide them. Haru was watching, dispassionate. 

“Then the physical therapy was harder than anyone expected. I couldn’t deal with how unresponsive my muscles were, and the shark had almost completely severed my gastrocnemius.” He gestured to his calf as he spoke, referring to the large calf muscle so vital for the kicks of a swimmer. “It kept tearing and detaching and I’d have to start over from square one. And then I had to go through emotional trauma therapy because I couldn’t deal with everything, and even Gou distanced herself because she didn’t couldn’t deal with me, and I just didn’t want any of you to see me like that and think I was pitiful because even my own sister was disgusted by me.” The tears and the words were both flowing out of him in earnest now, and Haru looked mildly shocked at the outburst. He handed the redhead a cloth napkin from the table without a word. 

Rin dabbed at his eyes before he continued. “It’s not Gou’s fault, and I know she still loves me and only left because it hurt her to see me like that too. But if my own sister couldn’t handle it I didn’t see how anyone else could. 

“After that, when I started to get better, it just seemed easier not to contact anyone. I was afraid of a relapse, and I didn’t know how to revive our friendships.” He blew his nose on the napkin, before realizing that was probably very rude to do, and hurriedly put the white cloth down. Haru was still watching him with the same expression he’d had since his arrival. 

“Say something,” Rin prompted. 

Haru spoke slowly. “I suppose I see why you didn’t contact us. I don’t like it, but I can understand how your emotions might have made it seem like the only course of action. How did you decide on becoming a police officer?”

Rin sniffled again, grounding himself by drinking from his water glass. “Sousuke was entering the Police Academy when I was injured,” he answered, his voice leveling out. “I didn’t know what else to do so I just went along with his life plan. Why are you a chef when you’re a pro swimmer?”

The ghost of a smile graced Haru’s lips, the first Rin had seen in almost three years. “Swimming doesn’t quite pay the bills. I never realized how expensive rent could be.”

Rin barked out a laugh at that, and the conversation moved to happier topics. They ordered their meals, and chatted almost as they had in the old days as they ate. 

“Makoto and I dated for a while,” Haru said casually, and Rin dropped his fork. 

“You serious?” He gaped at the pro-swimmer-turned-chef. Haru shrugged his affirmation. “Who asked who?” Rin breathed. 

“Makoto asked me,” Haru replied, a blush staining his cheeks. “But it didn’t last very long.”

Rin was surprised. He had always known Makoto was hopelessly in love with Haru—after all, it had been quite obvious—but Haru had always seemed too oblivious and Rin had always thought Makoto was too timid to push the issue. Plus, there was that issue of his little misunderstanding with Haru, which Makoto was fully aware of…

“How long is not long?” He asked casually. 

“Not even a month.”

Less than a month wasn’t long at all, as far as relationships went. Still, Rin couldn’t help but feel a surge of jealousy. Haru had given Makoto almost a month and he hadn’t even given Rin a chance. The redhead’s ears heated with humiliation. Maybe it was just better to clear that up once and for all.

“About that letter,” he announced. Haru looked at him sharply, eyebrow raised. “The one I wrote to you after my last visit. When I misunderstood what had happened in the bar.”

Misunderstanding what had happened in the bar was, perhaps, an understatement. It had been a carefree night, filled with festivity to celebrate Rin’s return home and to send him back to Australia in style. They had all gone out—Rin and Haru, Sousuke, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei, and even Momo and Ai. Gou had made a token appearance before calling it a night—she would say goodbye to her brother the next morning, and she hadn’t liked spending much time around Momo after the two of them had broken up. 

Nagisa and Rei had gone home early—the two had just started dating a few weeks before, and were still exploring the novelties of their new relationship. Momo had left shortly after. Rin privately suspected he had been moping about the encounter with his now ex-girlfriend. The rest of the party, to put it mildly, had gotten hammered. 

Ai had gotten very clingy, and had attached himself to Rin like a leech for most of the evening before passing out at the table they had claimed for themselves. Sousuke had somehow talked Makoto into doing a karaoke duet with him, and the two of them were merrily singing off-key at the top of their lungs when Haru suddenly turned to Rin and kissed him, right on the lips. 

“Australia is too far away,” he’d proclaimed. “Wait for me.” Then he’d gotten up, made his stumbling way across the bar to Makoto, and dragged the brunet off the stage and out the door. Rin had been too stunned to do more than just watch them go. Sousuke had finished his song (now trying to sing both duet parts by himself), and broken the redhead out of his shocked reverie. The next morning, a very hungover Rin had made his way back to Australia as planned, without having a chance to talk to Haru about what he meant. 

In hindsight, it was obvious to Rin that he had harbored romantic feelings for Haru for quite some time—possibly even since elementary school. Haru’s kiss had churned those feelings into flames, and they burned within him until he couldn’t contain it anymore. He wrote a letter, declaring his love and intention to be involved with no one other than Haru, and sent it by air mail. 

Haru’s tepid, apologetic response had not been his anticipated answer. 

Mortification still stirred within him to this day, just thinking about it. But maybe he could put that to rest now. “I really liked you, and I mistook a drunken act of affection as something more than it was, and went over the top. I’m sorry. I hope we can put it behind us.” And pretend it never happened, he thought, but hoped Haru would understand the implication without him having to speak it aloud. 

Haru smiled at him, a sweet smile that made Rin’s heart do flip flops. Uh-oh.

“You didn’t misunderstand,” the blue-eyed man said, and Rin wondered if he was losing his hearing. Or his mind. 

“I misunderstood myself. It turns out I had always liked you, too, but I didn’t really understand it then, and I rejected you partly out of fear. I was afraid to change what we had; afraid of what it would do to our swimming. That’s why I was so hurt when you stopped writing, too.”

If Rin had gaped at other man when he learned he had dated Makoto, he was positively ogling him now. His mouth was so far open he felt like he was challenging Haru to start throwing morsels of food in it. 

He finally managed to utter the words. “You liked me?” 

Haru nodded, and suddenly wouldn’t meet the detective’s eyes. “Maybe we can see if we’re still interested in a relationship, after you settle in.” Now he was blushing furiously, and Rin was only gawking harder. 

Saved—or perhaps not—by the bell. Rin’s phone went off, and he jumped, nearly knocking his now-empty water glass off the table. Haru jumped, too, fork skittering off his plate and onto the floor. If Rin hadn’t been so flustered he’d have found it hilarious. Frazzled, he pulled out his phone and looked at the caller ID. Sousuke. 

“Yes?” He said, glancing apologetically at Haru. The black-haired man was busy recovering his fork, and didn’t notice. “What’s up?”

“There’s been a bank robbery,” the stoic man rumbled in his ear. “Gunshot victim. Takita and Yuhara want us to take point on the case. Ready for your first official homicide, detective?”

“Uh…” Rin glanced at Haru, who was now watching him speculatively. “Yeah, where at?”

He took down the address Sousuke gave him and hung up. “I’m sorry,” he grimaced at Haru. “Work calls. But can I call you?”

Haru nodded emphatically, and Rin took his leave feeling very confused, but optimistic.

*

The redhead’s optimism lasted all the way to the crime scene. He checked in with the patrolling officer who was keeping unauthorized individuals out of the bank, and ducked under the crime scene tape. Sousuke was waiting for him just outside the door. 

“How’s it look?” Rin asked as he approached the bigger man. 

“Don’t know yet. Thought I’d wait for you.” The often grumpy-seeming man grinned openly at his friend, and gestured for Rin to move inside.

Inside the bank they found Detectives Takita and Yuhara, who smiled as they approached. 

“We’ll give you guys the lead on this one and just hang back and observe,” Takita told them cheerfully. “If necessary we’ll step in with pointers, but otherwise consider this a ‘training by doing’ exercise.”

Sousuke led the way to the body. Rin hung back slightly, nervous now both about seeing the body—though he’d handled the blood just fine up until now—and about messing up his first official case. What if he made some stupid rookie mistake?

Then Sousuke stopped abruptly, and the redhead almost walked into him. Rin put his hand against the broad-shouldered man’s muscular back, and moved to peer around him at the body. Sousuke’s arm shot out, but was an ineffective barrier. 

Gray eyes stared lifelessly at him from under silver bangs, and he felt an electric jolt of recognition. 

His first homicide victim was none other than his old teammate Aiichiro Nitori.


	4. With a Little Help from my Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin has many emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! Feedback is appreciated!

Rin’s memory of the rest of the evening was hazy. The world had spun around him as he’d stared into Ai’s lifeless eyes, the blood splattered across his face standing out against his white skin. The sticky wound in his chest hovered on the edge of Rin’s vision. 

He seemed to remember falling, his knees hitting the floor with a jolt. Then he had a blurry memory of concerned voices, a car ride, and the next thing he knew he was sitting on the couch in Sousuke’s apartment, a mug of hot tea in his hand, and a cool damp cloth across the back of his neck. Sousuke was rubbing the redhead’s shoulders and murmuring to him comfortingly. 

“Ai.” His voice was a choked whisper. Sousuke stopped massaging his back and moved around to where he could see Rin’s face. 

“I know. It was Ai.” The dark-haired man looked sorrowful, his eyes red-rimmed and shadowed. 

“Why?” Rin’s voice broke and he choked back a mournful howl. 

“I don’t know. Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Rin began to cry in earnest. The bigger man sat close beside him and wrapped his arms around the redhead, whose body began to shudder with his sobs. Sousuke picked him up like a baby and carried him to the bed, where he wrapped his body close to Rin’s and held him. Rin clung to his friend, weeping as he hadn’t wept since he had first been told he would never be able to swim professionally again.

*

He woke up disoriented the next morning. His face felt like it had been stuffed with cotton, and his throat was dry and scratchy. His eyes were gummy, and he had slept fitfully, tossing with memories of blood and death. 

He lay there for a moment in confusion before recognizing his surroundings. He was in Sousuke’s bed, the blankets rumpled and half-draped on the floor. He grimaced at the tear-stained pillow and resolved to do his friend’s laundry in apology. 

Sousuke was sleeping on the sofa. His laptop was open on the floor beside him, and it looked as though he had fallen asleep after doing research. Rin picked up the laptop and sat at the table. 

Sure enough, Sousuke’s laptop was opened to an old email from Ai. In it, he’d been telling Sousuke about a job interview he was preparing for. The tone of the message was discouraged, and Rin realized with a twinge of guilt that he didn’t know anything about what Ai had been doing with his life. He checked the other tabs open in the browser. 

A basic Google search on Ai, the bank’s website, and a remote link to a site through the secured Iwatobi PD network that had timed out. Most likely it was another search for information about Ai. 

“He dropped out of school,” Sousuke’s voice rumbled from behind him. Rin startled at the sudden sound and twisted around to look over his shoulder. Sousuke was still lying on the sofa, one arm draped over his eyes, peering at the redhead from the gloom it created. His voice was gravelly with sleep. “Yuhara told me last night.”

Rin looked back at the computer screen, ashamed of himself. “When?” His voice was a whisper, cracked and raw from his sobs the previous night. “Why didn’t he tell me?” But deep in his heart he knew why—he had cut himself off from his friends after his injury, not even reading their letters for a while because he was so sunk in his own misery. No wonder he had lost track of what was going on in Ai’s world. 

“Shortly before the last time we saw him, evidently,” Sousuke grunted, sitting upright. He sighed and rubbed at the shoulder he had injured so long ago. “He’s been working dead-end jobs ever since. I knew he’d been bouncing around a lot but I never knew he dropped out.”

A fresh wave of guilt washed over Rin at his broad-shouldered friend’s words. Even the recalcitrant Sousuke had kept in touch with his old swim team. 

The teal-eyed man’s warm hand fell on Rin’s shoulder with a thud. “Don’t worry about it Rin. It’s not your fault. Communication is a two-way street, after all. Let’s have breakfast.” 

But as Rin followed his friend to the kitchen to help prepare their breakfast he couldn’t help but feel that it was primarily his fault that they had fallen out of touch. 

*

Rin followed Sousuke into the station awkwardly. Now that he’d had time to process the events of yesterday he felt self-conscious about his meltdown—on his first case, no less. 

They walked into the large conference room that acted as the homicide division’s center of operations. A large table circled by chairs dominated one end of the room, and the wall closest to it was split half-and-half into a white board and a cork board. Two large TV monitors were mounted on the adjoining wall, with a computer console and printer set on a small shelf below. Four desks were spaced in the remaining half of the room, facing each other so the detectives could bounce ideas off of each other as they worked. Filing cabinets lined the wall opposite the large table, and the coffee pot atop one was dripping merrily when the two young detectives entered the room. 

Rin’s desk was on the side with the filing cabinets, facing the door. Sousuke’s desk was across from him. Each desk was equipped with double monitors and kept clutter-free with pull-out keyboard trays. Rin’s was suspiciously bare—he hadn’t brought in many personal effects yet. A manila envelope sat in the middle of his desk, an identical file on Sousuke’s. Takita lounged in his desk chair, twiddling his pencil absently. 

“Summary of the case so far,” he said when they arrived, jutting his chin toward a similar folder on his desk. He looked at Rin and his eyes softened, just a touch. “Are you okay?”

Rin flushed, but nodded. “I’m sorry, my behavior yesterday wasn’t professional—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Takita waved away his concern. “Yamazaki tells me you both knew the victim. It’s a shock, losing someone like that. And you’re not the first homicide detective to have one issue or another when dealing with the death of a loved one.”

“Besides, it’s better that you two be off the case, due to your relationship with the victim,” Yuhara said from where she stood next to the dry erase board. Rin hadn’t noticed her there until she spoke. Then her words sank in. 

“Off the— You can’t be serious!” He exclaimed. She merely looked at him. 

“Look, I know Sousuke and I knew Ai, but that was in high school! I haven’t even seen or heard from him in about two years now. Please let us work the case; we’re not going to steal evidence or anything like that, please.” Even to his ears his words sounded whiny, but he found he didn’t care. He was numb still, his mind struggling to grasp the reality of Ai’s death, but if he knew one thing it was that he wanted to bring the small silver-haired man’s killer to justice. 

Yuhara’s eyes flicked briefly to Takita and Sousuke before coming back to rest on the desperate redhead. She nodded once, as if to herself, and spoke. 

“Alright. We discussed it yesterday, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be too much for you. You and Yamazaki will remain on the case, but Takita and I are the leads.”

Rin’s relief was so great that he sagged against his desk, and tears welled up in his eyes. “Thank you,” he managed to choke out, willing himself not to cry. 

“You’re welcome,” Takita rumbled, and then tossed his pencil down on his desk and stretched his arms high over his head. “Now that we’ve established that, let’s review what we know so far.” He stood and strode around the large communal table to where his partner stood, now at the junction of dry erase and cork board. Rin and Sousuke grabbed their manila envelopes containing the case files and joined them. 

The marker squeaked across the white surface as Takita scribbled out the facts. 

“One,” he said, “There were two victims.”

“Two?” Rin was surprised. 

Sousuke nodded. “Another man was injured, but died in the ambulance before they made it to the hospital.” 

“Two,” Takita continued as if Rin hadn’t spoken. “Witnesses reported three robbers, and we know there must have been a getaway driver as well.” The marker squeaked in time with his words. 

“Three,” the older man said, then stopped. Lowering his hand slowly, he looked back at Rin and Sousuke and sighed. “Three, a witness identified Aiichirou Nitori as one of the three robbers,” he said in an apologetic tone. Rin’s ears began to buzz, and he and Sousuke stared at the senior detective in shocked silence. 

Sousuke recovered first. “Why does the witness say that? Could he or she be mistaken?”

Takita gave a vague shrug. “Her story is pretty specific. It’s possible she’s lying, but that’d be pretty easy to check. We assigned a couple of officers to take statements from everyone else who was there last night, so they should verify or contradict her story.”

“You haven’t gotten all the witness statements yet?” Sousuke sounded surprised, and Takita’s eyes flitted to Rin before he answered. 

“Things were a little hectic yesterday.”

The buzzing in Rin’s ears grew, and he realized that Takita was referring to him, collapsing on a crime scene and throwing off the usual procedure of an investigation. Heat spread to the ends of his buzzing ears, and his nose began to tingle as well. 

Sousuke was still demanding answers from Takita. “If Ai was one of the robbers, why was he killed? Was a bystander armed, or was there an altercation with the robbers and someone managed to take the gun?” 

“It sounds like he was compromised, but if you slow down I’ll tell you what the witness said,” Takita’s voice was exasperated, but Rin could barely focus on it. His ears were numb now and the world seemed to be closing in around him, the walls sucking in until he was trapped in dimness, suffocating. 

“Matsuoka! Are you alright?” Yuhara’s sharp voice cut into the haze surrounding him, and some of the buzzing quieted—Sousuke and Takita’s voices, he realized. Suddenly a hand was under his elbow, guiding him away from the spot where he had been slumped against the table and into a chair. Someone curled his hand around a cup of cold water as his vision slowly began to brighten again. The buzzing in his ears and tingling in his nose receded, leaving him feeling shaky and weak. He sipped his water. 

“Rin?” Sousuke’s voice boomed softly in his ear, the big man’s warm hand closing down gently upon his shoulder. 

“I’m okay,” the redhead said hesitantly. “Just had a shock.” He sat up straighter in his chair, and the pressure from Sousuke’s hand ceased. The redhead took a bracing breath before looking up at the two senior detectives, who were watching him closely from across the table. 

“Son, maybe you should take the rest of the day off,” Takita began, but Rin cut him off. 

“No, I’ll be fine. Could you tell me exactly what the witness said when she described …Ai… as one of the robbers?” He couldn’t quite bring himself to refer to Ai as ‘the victim’. 

Takita nodded slowly, and returned to the whiteboard. “Alright,” he said, picking up the marker again. Rin resigned himself to another squeaking lecture on the case. “The witness we interviewed yesterday is named Mitsuyo Shimon. She tried to help out other victim, Meiji Tarumi, before the paramedics arrived on the scene. Mrs. Shimon stated that three masked individuals ran into the bank, locking the doors and telling the people inside to gather on one side of the room. All three were armed. Two threatened the majority of the people while the third isolated a teller and demanded she open the drawers at each teller window, to which she complied. According to Mrs. Shimon, the robbers were preparing to leave when Mr. Tarumi tried to act the hero—he pulled the mask off the nearest robber, who fired, injuring Mr. Tarumi. The robber who had been gathering the cash then turned and shot the unmasked robber, and the two ran out to their van and sped away, leaving their companion dead and Mr. Tarumi critically injured.”

Rin was feeling decidedly faint again. Ai was a bank robber…and he had shot a man. 

“What about security footage?” he asked weakly. 

“There isn’t any. It seems the system was down for maintenance and the bank was relying on the bluff of simply having security cameras to deter any incidents.”

“So we’re just relying on witness statements,” Sousuke sighed. “I’m sorry Rin, but it seems fairly cut and dried so far. We’ll just have to see what the other people involved say.”

The redhead nodded imperceptibly, his head still spinning. 

A uniformed officer poked his head into the door. “Excuse me, detectives? They’re waiting for you in the lobby, should I escort them to the interview room?”

“Thank you, we’ll be right there,” Yuhara told him, and he disappeared. Takita cleared his throat, drawing the attention of Sousuke and Rin. 

“We notified the victim’s—Nitori’s—parents last night. They’re here for an interview. Would you like to observe?” His tone was somewhat tentative, as if the offer went against his better judgement—which is probably did. 

Rin shot up from his seat, trying not to show the signs of the sudden rush of blood to his head. “Yes.”

Sousuke looked sharply at his friend, but nodded in agreement. The two senior detectives glanced at each other but didn’t argue, for which Rin was grateful. 

When they reached the lobby, however, his resolve failed him, and he faltered, falling out of line where he followed behind Yuhara. Sousuke paused as Rin stalled, but after a moment apparently made the decision to let Rin work it out on his own. As the three rounded the corner of the hallway, the redhead took a bracing breath and trailed around the bend behind them. 

He’d only met Ai’s parents a couple of times. They had attended the last swim meet he had participated in at Samezuka, where they had raced Iwatobi in the relay, and he had spoken with them briefly when he’d gone back to watch Ai and Momo swim the following year, before Ai graduated. 

Ai’s mother was as pale as her child, and as slender. His father was larger, more portly, but had the same silky, silvery hair and wide eyes. Currently, they were bloodshot and red-rimmed, and his arm was wrapped around his wife, who was weeping uncontrollably into her hands. Rin’s ears began to ring again, and he slumped against the wall. 

Takita and Yuhara were introducing themselves to the grieving pair, and as Ai’s mother uncovered her face in order to shake hands, Rin realized with a shock that he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t sit across a table from one of his best friend’s parents and ask them how their son had gotten involved in robbing banks, or explain why he hadn’t kept in touch with Ai in the last years. 

Takita was speaking to him. He hadn’t even noticed the older man approach. “Why don’t you take the day, Matsuoka,” the light-haired man said kindly. “Yuhara and I will handle this, and we’ll keep you in the loop. But for now, go home, get some rest.” 

Rin felt too sick to object, so he simply nodded dismally, turning his gaze to Sousuke. The big man looked uncomfortable. 

“I’ll stay, if it’s alright with you,” he said to Takita. “We still don’t know who the other robbers were. I can go through the bank’s history, see if they refused anyone for a loan recently or something, try to find other suspects.” 

Takita slapped the big man on the shoulder. “If the witness statements come in while we’re occupied, you can start on those, too,” he said, and then followed Yuhara and Ai’s weeping parents into the interview room. As the door swung closed behind him, Sousuke turned to Rin. He avoided meeting the redhead’s eyes. 

“I wasn’t as close to him as you were,” he said awkwardly. “Takita is right, and I know you didn’t sleep well last night. Go get some rest and we’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

Rin felt hollow as he watched his best friend walk back the way they had come, ready and able to go back to work. 

*

He wandered aimlessly for a while, simply letting his feet move, not really paying attention to where he was going. Somehow he ended up at a park, and sank down onto a squeaking swing set, trying to formulate a plan. He knew he was sleep-deprived: he could feel it in the haziness of his thoughts, the graininess of his eyes. He also knew he didn’t want to be alone with his feelings. Sousuke was working, and he didn’t want to call Gou—she was busy and far away and she didn’t need to deal with her brother’s problems right now. So he called the only other person he had a phone number for: Haru. 

“Rin?” The black-haired swimmer sounded surprised when he finally answered the phone. 

“Hey,” the redhead said, and then his throat closed up. “I’m sorry—know you’re busy—just need someone—Ai—Ai was—”

Haru most likely had no idea what Rin was trying to say, but he got the idea. “I’m home right now. Do you want to come over? I’ll text you the address.”

“Y-yes,” Rin managed to choke out, and Haru murmured in response and hung up. The text came in a few moments later and Rin set off, wiping his eyes. 

It was only a few blocks to Haru’s apartment, and Rin was still sniveling intermittently when he got there. 

The swimmer opened the door almost immediately at his knock. Rin stumbled past at the dark-haired man’s invitation into the cool interior. 

Two cups of tea were steaming on the low table in the central room, and a platter of toast and fish—grilled mackerel, of course—accompanied them. 

Rin turned as Haru shut the door. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I didn’t mean to interrupt if you had company…” He trailed off as the swimmer gave him a look. Don’t be an idiot, Rin, it said. 

“Don’t be silly. You’re my company. Sit.”

And so Rin joined him on the floor, feeling more foolish by the second. He took a sip of tea while Haru watched him silently; it was surprisingly good. The warmth filled his mouth, sliding down his throat into his belly, and calmed him somewhat. Haru nodded approvingly when Rin put the cup down. 

“So. What happened?” 

Rin curled his fingers around the hot mug of tea, and in a wavering voice told Haru what had happened the day before. His ocean-blue eyes grew wide as Rin shakily told the tale, but he didn’t interrupt. 

“And they were going to interview his parents but I couldn’t handle it, so they told me to go home,” he finished lamely, and suddenly he was crying again, blubbering helplessly over the now-empty teacup. Haru crawled quickly around the table to his side, and wrapped his arms around the redhead. 

“I’m so sorry, Rin,” he whispered, gently rubbing the detective’s back in a circular, calming motion. “That’s terrible.”

Rin was rocking back and forth now, as if the pain inside couldn’t be contained anymore. “I just don’t understand,” he howled. “I don’t understand.”

Haru was murmuring softly, still holding him. Rin didn’t even think the black-haired man was saying actual words, just making soothing noises. 

At some point—Rin didn’t know exactly when—the soothing sounds were replaced by soft kisses on his neck, moving slowly toward his jaw. Rin turned his head automatically, not even consciously thinking about it, and their lips met, Rin’s salty and wet from his tears, Haru’s cool and dry. 

Rin was hesitant at first, his grief making him sluggish and confused. Haru was gentle, tentative, but when Rin didn’t pull back, his mouth became more insistent. Rin pushed into the kiss, turning his head so he wasn’t looking awkwardly over his shoulder, and their noses banged together. Both men jumped back. 

“S-sorry,” Rin stammered, face flushing. Haru was looking at him contemplatively. The silence stretched between them, long and uncomfortable. Rin began to rise. “I should go—”

“Rin.”

The redhead paused. Haru looked like he was going to say something else, but then simply leaned forward and gently kissed him again. His lips were moist now, warmer than they had been, and his hand crept tentatively around Rin’s face to settle on the back of his neck. Rin returned the swimmer’s embrace, holding his arms tensely around the shorter man. Their kiss gained passion, and though they knocked noses a few more times, neither broke it completely. 

Rin had kissed people throughout his life—mostly chaste pecks, very rarely a full-on make-out session like this. He had always found them wet and inelegant, but with Haru it was different. Something about the way the other man sucked on his lip, breathing him in and holding him close, made the redhead breathless and euphoric. He tentatively licked at Haru’s parted lips, and the dark-haired man’s eyes fluttered open momentarily before his mouth opened and allowed Rin in. 

They explored like this for a while, eyes closed, tongues flickering around each other, tasting and testing. Rin ran his hands up Haru’s strong back, feeling the way the other man’s muscles bunched, his shoulder blades sharp and his flesh firm. Haru’s arms were doing the same, and one hand slid under the back of Rin’s shirt and up his skin, leaving goosebumps and thrills in its wake. Rin gasped in surprise at the touch. Haru’s other hand, still cupping the back of his head, crept around to stroke experimentally at the rim of his ear, and he let out an involuntary moan. 

His hands were under Haru’s shirt now, the flesh warm and soft under his calloused hands. He was very aroused now, and was afraid Haru knew it, pressed together as they were. He fervently hoped that the bulky fabric of his trousers hid his erection from the man he hadn’t seen in so long, with whom he was now being so intimate. The logical part of his brain that wasn’t controlled by hormones and pleasure screamed at him to pull back, that they were moving too fast, and that this was no way to cope with a friend’s death. 

He withdrew, muscles tensing. Haru stopped kissing his neck and looked at him, confused. Rin flushed. 

“Haru—I don’t…I mean, I just think…” he stuttered, trying to find the words to explain his conflicting emotions. Haru’s expression softened into understanding. 

“You’ve experienced a loss and a shock, and this is too much on top of that,” the black-haired man murmured, pulling his hands out from under Rin’s shirt. The redhead nodded, afraid to meet Haru’s eyes. 

Haru reached a gentle hand under his chin and tilted his head up so that he had to look at the other man. “Rin. It’s fine. We can take it slow.” He kissed Rin again, slow and languorously, and just as Rin was thinking perhaps they could take this to the next level after all, he withdrew and sat back on his heels. Rin, feeling awkward, stood up. 

“I should go,” he said. 

Haru looked up at him, a flicker of disappointment in his ocean-blue eyes. “Are you sure? You can stay for a while.”

“No, I should go. For tonight,” he added, hoping Haru didn’t think he was just going to run off and never talk to him again. Haru smiled slightly, eyes brightening. 

“I’ll call you tomorrow, if that’s okay,” the swimmer said shyly, and suddenly looked down at the floor. “Maybe we can arrange an actual date.”

Rin nodded, not trusting his voice to reply, and fled out the door.


	5. Laying Out the Facts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a shorter, less-eventful chap to give us (by which I mean Rin) a bit of a break from the chaos LOL. Enjoy!

Rin was waiting at headquarters by the time Sousuke arrived the next morning, hot coffee steaming on the desk in front of him. His head was pounding and his eyes felt grainy, and his wandering mind could barely focus on the copies of the witness statements that he had found on his desk when he walked in. 

“Morning,” Sousuke said gruffly, sounding somewhat surprised. “Didn’t think you’d be in this early.”

Rin shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Sousuke squinted at him. “Are you okay?”

Rin nodded shortly. The truth was, he hadn’t slept well last night, and his body was feeling the effects of two nights of deprivation. He’d had a hard time falling asleep, due to pleasant memories of his afternoon with Haru as well as daydreams about what might have happened had he not rethought things (‘chickened out,’ his inner voice chided). Once sleep had finally found him, it had been haunted by visions of Ai, and Haru, violence and sensuality combined. Overall, it had been a rather stressful night. 

Sousuke grunted. Rin knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t satisfied with Rin’s response, but he didn’t seem willing to press the issue. Not right now, anyway. The big man turned away to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot that Rin had brewed earlier, and the redhead turned his attention back to the notes in front of him. 

At 2:43 pm, shortly before the bank closed for the day, three armed and masked men had entered the Iwatobi City Bank. Three tellers had been working, and two customers were present, Meiji Tarumi and Mitsuyo Shimon. No security guard had been employed during the time of the robbery. The three bank teller’s stories matched with Mitsuyo Shimon’s and corroborated her testimony that Ai was one of the robbers. 

The emergency call had come in from a shop owner across the street, verifying the timing. He had seen a nondescript tan van with tinted windows pull up in front of the bank, and three suspicious looking men with their heads covered had gotten out and entered the building. After a short while the shop owner heard two gunshots, at which point he called the police. He reported that only two of the men ran back out to jump in the van before it sped off. He had not seen the license plate number or any identifying features on the vehicle. 

Ai’s autopsy had confirmed the obvious cause of death: gunshot wound to the chest and rapid blood loss. Ballistics determined that the bullet was a .45 caliber, and the rifling marks were consistent with those typical to a Glock. The gun that had shot Meiji Tarumi—the gun Ai had used—had been recovered at the scene: a .380 Glock 42. 

There were no fingerprints on the .380—the gun had been wiped clean before the robbers had entered the bank, and Ai was found wearing thin gloves to avoid leaving prints. Presumably the same had been the case for the other thieves. The mask the silver haired man had been wearing was a generic long black cotton beanie, with holes cut in it for eyes and mouth. 

Meiji Tarumi, age 44, had been a customer at the bank when the robbers entered. When the robber nearest to him had turned to leave, lowering his weapon, Mr. Tarumi had leaped forward and jerked his mask partially off, while simultaneously making an ineffectual grab for the gun. The robber had fired in surprise, the bullet catching Mr. Tarumi in the abdomen. When his companions realized his disguise had been compromised, the robber had then been shot in the chest. No one who had been inside the bank at the time could provide any details about the other robbers or the getaway vehicle. 

The lack of information was giving Rin a headache. 

“Frustrating, isn’t it?” Sousuke asked as Rin groaned and rubbed at his temples. The taller man picked up Rin’s now-empty coffee mug and refilled it. 

“Tell me about it,” Rin muttered sourly in response, taking a deep gulp of the steaming liquid. 

“We’ll find something.”

The redhead grunted. 

“Morning.” Takita entered the room and poured himself the last of the coffee from the pot. Yuhara, trailing behind him, looked at him sourly. She emptied the used grinds from the machine and began preparing a new batch as the older detective crossed the room to his desk. 

“Yamazaki, did your search on the bank’s history yesterday turn up anything?”

“Not really. Ai had no history with Iwatobi City Bank that I could find. His only local accounts are with the Iwa Credit Union, and evidently he was hard up for cash. Five bounced checks in the last four months, and one of the worst credit scores I’ve ever seen.”

Yuhara nodded. “His parents told us that he’s been unable to keep a job. Seems he hid most of his financial troubles from them, but they could tell something was off and have been worried about him for a few years now.”

“Is there anything that can help us identify the other robbers?” Rin asked. 

“Iwatobi City Bank has declined loan requests from eight different individuals in the last year,” Sousuke told him, picking up a notebook from his desk and flipping through the pages. “I’ve confirmed alibis for three of them, and so far none of the others have any connection to Ai, that I’ve been able to find.”

“You think they may have targeted that bank specifically? What if it was random?”

Sousuke shrugged. “If it was random, it’ll be harder to solve. We look for patterns until it becomes evident that there aren’t any.”

“So five potential suspects,” Takita sighed. “What about other reasons that might make someone target the bank specifically?” 

“Like what?” Rin queried. 

“The bank foreclosed on one home in the last twelve months, but the homeowner is now living with family in Tokyo.” Sousuke supplied. 

Takita grunted. “Then we dig into the lives of the five people who were denied their loan requests.”

Sousuke nodded and turned back to his desk. Rin looked over at the senior agent, hesitating. The older man met his eyes questioningly. 

“What else did you learn from Ai’s parents?” The redhead asked awkwardly. Yuhara and Takita glanced at each other. 

“He got into the local university on a swimming scholarship and was studying business after high school. In his second year he was cut from the swimming team, lost his scholarship, and dropped out. Since then he’s been bouncing around from job to job, trying to stay afloat.” 

“Why would he resort to bank robbing, though? Aren’t there better ways to get money?” Rin was baffled. 

Takita shrugged. “You’ll see a lot of situations in this job that seem like they could have turned out differently. You have to remember that we have an objective point of view, while the people involved are seeing their situation from only one angle, and in many cases they’re desperate. Desperate people make questionable decisions when they feel like they have no other choice.”

Rin nodded, slowly. “Why didn’t he feel like he could rely on anyone to help him?” His voice was a murmur, directed more at himself than at the other detectives. 

Sousuke looked up at him in concern. “Relationships are complicated, Rin. Maybe he felt too embarrassed to ask for help, or maybe he just asked for help from the wrong people.”

Rin sighed and nodded again. “Yeah.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, kid,” Takita said bracingly. “Let’s just follow what leads we have and see where they take us.”

So for the rest of the day, they did just that. 

*

Their search that day had borne no fruit, and Rin felt discouraged that evening as he slumped on the sofa in his apartment, cold glass of water pressed to his aching temple. He closed his eyes and willed his mind to make some sort of connection even though they had eluded him all day. The sudden buzz of his phone startled him out of his lethargic reverie.

He lowered the glass of water to the floor next to him as he fumbled in his pocket for the device, and his heart began to beat faster when he saw the name on the caller ID. Haru. 

“H-hello?” He answered quaveringly into the mouthpiece. The search for the bank robbers—and Ai’s killer—had distracted him from last night’s encounter with Haru, but he hadn’t been expecting to hear from the swimmer this soon. His nerves jangled, and his imagination suggested several reasons why Haru would be calling—to say he never wanted to see Rin again, to say he was seeing someone else, to say he was appalled at what had happened the night before. Rin tamped his swirling thoughts down tightly and focused on Haru’s voice. 

“Hey,” the dark-haired man said. 

“Hi,” Rin replied. An uneasy silence ensued. 

“Um…did you learn anything today? About Ai?” 

“Uh…not really, sadly. And I probably shouldn’t talk much about it anyway, since it’s an open case and all…” Rin trailed off. 

“Right. Of course,” Haru answered briefly. 

The pauses were making Rin itchy with discomfort. He cleared his throat. 

“So how was your day?” Really? He berated himself silently. What a corny thing to ask, Rin.

“Fine,” Haru said, sounding nervous. “Had practice this morning and worked at The Catch this afternoon. Actually I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to lunch tomorrow?” The last sentence was said in one breath, and it took Rin’s brain a moment to catch up to what he had heard. 

“Yes!” He replied, sitting forward tensely on the sofa, nearly knocking over the glass of water at his feet. “I’d like that.” 

Haru sounded relieved. “Okay. Good. Um, I was thinking, maybe Makoto could come?”

Wait, what? Rin didn’t answer, still trying to sort out the words in his mind. 

“I mean I just thought maybe it would make us both more comfortable, since we haven’t seen each other in a while. And I know he wants to know how you’ve been too, so we could all catch up at once…Yamazaki would be welcome too, if you want to invite him,” Haru said lamely. He sounded more self-conscious with each word he spoke. “I mean, if it’s not okay, then we don’t have to. I just thought it’d help. I hope I didn’t offend you.”

“No, it’s fine.” Rin didn’t know he was going to say the words until they were out of his mouth, but once they were he realized it was true. He wasn’t sure he was ready to formally start dating Haru, and a group lunch would be far less rattling to his already jangled nerves than a one-on-one meeting. Haru had realized that and opted to make things easier on him.

“I think it’s a good idea,” he said, more warmly, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “What time works for you?” 

They arranged to meet downtown at 12:30, and terminated the call. Rin tossed the phone down onto the cushion beside him and sat back with a sigh. His head still pounded dully, but his stomach was doing flip flops as he thought about tomorrow: seeing Haru again, and also reuniting with Makoto after so long. 

He began creating scenarios and drafting conversation in his head, while simultaneously running through the case info he’d gathered so far. He absently prepared himself for bed, changing clothes and brushing his teeth as thought on auto-pilot before climbing into bed. Brain whirling, he didn’t even realize when he finally dozed off.


	6. Making Amends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin has stressful dreams and he and Makoto meet for the first time since Rin's accident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WAS SUPER SLOW ON THIS ONE I'M SORRY PLEASE ENJOY

They were in a locker room, standing in their swimsuits. Rin stared at the picture of his father’s relay team, taped to the inside of the locker door in front of him. 

“Watch me, dad,” he said to the small figure in the image, and shut the door with a click. He turned to scoop up his goggles from the bench behind him. 

“Rin. Are you sure you want this?” Haru asked, moving in front of him. 

“Of course,” he answered, surprised. Surely Haru knew that already?

“Rin-senpai, are you sure?” Ai said, coming up to stand next to the redhead. Rin looked at him and recoiled. Ai’s face and chest were covered in blood, and a ragged hole in his chest oozed stickily. Ai touched his captain’s face, and his hands were like ice. “You have to be sure.”

“Rin,” Haru said again, and the redhead jerked back to face him, Ai’s cold hands disappearing. Haru looked angry now, and shoved him forcefully into the wall of lockers. “You don’t want this. You want me.”

Sousuke snorted from next to Haru. “So you’ve chosen him over your dream? Pathetic.”

“What? No.” Rin tried to say, confused, but suddenly Haru’s lips were on his and he couldn’t speak. 

“Say you want me, Rin,” Haru murmured into him, and his hand moved down the front of Rin’s swimsuit to stroke at his hardening cock through the thin material. 

“Haru, we have a competition,” Rin moaned when Haru’s lips freed him, but the black-haired man just laughed. 

“This is more important.” 

A laugh from Rin’s other side startled him as Haru’s hand continued its teasing. “Rin-chan, you know you want this,” the blonde said, his glasses-wearing boyfriend draped over him with a dreamy expression on his face. 

“Nagisa!” Rin gasped, trying to push Haru away in embarrassment. “No, we have to swim!”

“Rin-san, it’s really quite enjoyable if you let yourself relax,” Rei said, turning his head to nuzzle at Nagisa’s curly hair. “One might even describe it as beautiful.”

Haru was now kissing the side of his neck now, sucking lightly, his hands tracing feather-light patterns over Rin’s abdomen, tickling pleasurably. 

Nagisa giggled. “If you want, Rin-chan, Rei-chan and I can show you how it’s done.” He turned his head and kissed his dark-haired boyfriend, and Rei’s hands moved down the blonde’s stomach and under the waistband of his swimsuit. Nagisa’s erection was obvious through the tight material and Rin gasped at their forwardness. 

“Rin,” Sousuke said huskily, and when Rin looked to his other side the teal-eyed man was right next to him. “Tell me what you want.” 

Sousuke’s hand gently touched one of Rin’s nipples, pulling lightly, and the redhead gasped in shock. Haru’s suckling kisses had moved down to his ribs, and both dark-haired men were ignoring each other, almost as if they didn’t realize the other was there. 

“I can make you feel like you’ve never felt before,” Sousuke whispered, and his mouth moved to Rin’s, tongue sweeping past the redhead’s lips and into his mouth. 

“Stop!” Rin gasped, and then it was just Haru standing in front of him, Haru with his goggles on as if they were both about to dive into a pool. 

“Shall we race, Rin? How fast can you finish?” He grinned a naughty smile, an expression Rin had never seen on his face before, and before he knew it the black-haired man had him pinned against the locker again, hand rubbing hard against his cock, lips bruising his face. 

Rin struggled to focus. “Haru,” he said, trying to fight the ache in his genitals, the desire for more. “We have a race.”

“Of course we do,” Haru murmured, gently pulling Rin’s swimsuit down to expose his throbbing dick. With one smooth motion, he knelt in front of the redhead and clamped his mouth around Rin, licking, sucking, hands on Rin’s thighs to brace himself. Rin cried out and bucked into Haru’s mouth, the pleasure mounting. It seemed to take no time at all before he was moaning with the need for release, but Haru just kept teasing and wouldn’t provide the last push Rin needed. 

“Haru!” Rin cried out in a strangled voice, and awoke abruptly. He was lying in bed in his apartment, the darkness seeping in through the blinds, indicating that it wasn’t yet time to be up. His cock throbbed, aching with the passion of his dream. 

He lay there in the dark with his racing thoughts until it passed. 

*

Early the next morning he was standing in the shower, letting the hot water beat his back and soak into his muscles, willing it to wash away the disorientation of his dream, when his phone rang. He hurriedly turned off the water and briefly dried himself off, wrapping the towel around his waist and cursing Sousuke’s poor timing. 

“Yeah?” He said into the mouthpiece, moving his dripping hair away from his face. 

“Good morning big brother,” said a feminine voice. 

“Gou?”

“Yeah. You sound surprised. You do know your phone has a feature that tells you who’s calling, right?”

He sighed. “Yeah. Sorry, I just got out of the shower so I was in a hurry and didn’t check.”

“Ooooh,” she replied. “Do you want me to call you back?”

“Naw, it’s fine. So what’s up?” 

“I’m going to come to Iwatobi for the weekend. Can I stay with you?”

“Why don’t you want to stay with Mom?” He asked, perplexed. 

He could hear the pout in her answer. “You don’t want me to stay with you?”

“No, it’s fine, I was just wondering. Mom’s house is a lot more comfortable than my apartment.”

“Well I want to stay with you. Can’t a girl miss her big brother?”

He chuckled. “Of course she can.”

“Good,” Gou replied decisively. “Then I’ll be there Friday night, if that’s okay?”

He nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. “Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay. I love you, big brother.”

“You too, Gou.”

*

Their search that morning was just as fruitless as that of the previous day. The Iwatobi City Bank heist did not appear to be part of a robbery string, nor did they find any obvious suspects. Yuhara and Takita were scouting the area around the bank, asking questions, searching for any more witnesses, but Rin and Sousuke were having no luck back at headquarters. 

Rin groaned and rubbed at his sore eyes. “We have _got_ to find something.”

Sousuke grunted. Their futile search was making him grouchy as well. 

“What have we missed?” Rin pressed. “Are we looking at this from the wrong angle?”

Sousuke sighed. “We will find something. But now we need a break, so we can look at it with fresh eyes later. Let’s grab lunch. What do you want?”

_‘Tell me what you want,’_ Sousuke had said in his dream, before kissing him passionately. The echoed sentiment brought it all crashing back, and the blood rushed to his face in embarrassment. As a result of his distraction, the big man’s words took a while to penetrate into Rin’s awareness. 

“Crap!” He exclaimed, leaping to his feet and looking frantically at the clock. It read 12:06. 

“What’s wrong?” Sousuke asked, half-rising from his seat in alarm. 

“I’m meeting Haru for lunch. At 12:30.” The redhead quickly began tidying the files on his desk, organizing them so they wouldn’t be in complete disarray when he returned. 

“So you’re back on speaking terms without first running away from him,” Sousuke mused, sinking back into his seat. “That’s a good sign. Hey, you never did tell me how dinner went…that night.”

“Yeah, it went well. I saw him the day before yesterday too, after I left headquarters.” Rin answered, preoccupied. Then he stopped. “Shit,” he mumbled to himself. Then he turned to his partner. Sousuke was looking at him with one eyebrow raised. 

“Hey, Sousuke, actually you’re invited to lunch too.” 

The other eyebrow lifted. “First you’re seeing Nanase almost every day and now he wants to have lunch with me too?”

“Well, uh…” Rin hedged. How much should he tell Sousuke about the possibility of a romance with Haru? He decided on simple facts for the time being. “He thought it might be best to have a group lunch. Makoto should be there too, if that makes a difference.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The other detective’s brows furrowed in a confused frown. 

“If you were worried about being the third wheel or something…” Rin trailed off. Sousuke wore a stiff expression now, and the redhead wasn’t at all sure how to decipher it. 

“Things have progressed far enough between you and Nanase that outsiders are that obvious now?” His tone was wry, almost condescending, and Rin was suddenly unsure of himself. He opened his mouth to tell Sousuke he didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to, but the teal-eyed man spoke over him. 

“I’m kidding,” he said in a lighter tone. “I’m glad you’ve worked out your differences. You need more friends to rely on in times of need, Rin.”

Rin flushed slightly, still conflicted over Sousuke’s odd behavior. “Yeah. So do you want to come?”

Sousuke chuckled and stood. “Sure, why not? This way Makoto can be the third wheel, and I can be the fourth wheel.”

Rin swatted him as the pair walked out the door. 

*

Haru was already at the restaurant when Rin and Sousuke arrived, and Makoto got there soon after. He looked much the same as Rin remembered: tall and broad-shouldered, with kind eyes and a ready smile. His muscularity was perhaps more mature and bulky than it had been, and his hair was longer, but the way his lips quirked up when he saw the group waiting for him at the table immediately put Rin at ease. He smiled enthusiastically at his old friend. The brunet smiled back and came around the table to catch both Rin and Sousuke in a one-armed hug each. Rin was embarrassed by the larger man’s sudden display of affection, and when he pulled away the redhead saw that Sousuke’s cheeks were slightly flushed as well. 

“It’s great to see both of you!” Makoto exclaimed as he sat down beside Haru. “You’re both detectives now?”

Rin nodded as the waitress came over to take their orders, and resumed the conversation once she had walked away. “Detectives Matsouka and Yamazaki, at your service,” he answered mockingly. “If you can believe it, which I still can’t sometimes.”

Makoto grinned at him. “I never imagined you as a cop, I have to admit.” 

Haru nudged his friend. “Your career path didn’t exactly go as planned, either,” he pointed out. 

The brunet laughed. “True.”

“Yeah, how do you go from coaching swimming lessons to fire-fighting?” Rin asked conversationally, leaning back in his chair. 

Makoto shrugged one shoulder. “I guess I discovered that coaching full time isn’t for me. Little kids are great, but it hit me hard when I found out that there are some you just can’t get to love swimming no matter how hard you try. Plus, when they throw tantrums they really throw tantrums.”

“You’re not used to that after Ran and Ren?” Rin asked jokingly. 

“Ran and Ren may have misbehaved to get their way, but they always knew what wasn’t acceptable. I actually got bitten by a couple of kids who didn’t like the activity I had planned for the day.” 

Sousuke had been taking a sip of the water the waitress had just brought them—at this, he choked, chortling. Rin slapped him on the back while the big man coughed. 

“You serious?” He asked when he had recovered. 

Makoto nodded in mock solemnity. “Also kicked and hit with kickboards. And peed on. Frequently.” 

Rin was laughing as well now, and even Haru was smiling slightly. Makoto was grinning openly. 

“I can see why fighting fires might seem a better alternative,” the redhead teased. 

“The dangers are entirely different,” Makoto agreed. “I still volunteer at Iwatobi SC Returns occasionally, but the chaos is not nearly as bad when you’re only a part time coach. Although, last week when I was there a kid somehow hit the water wrong when he dived in and managed to give himself a nosebleed. Which of course freaked all the other kids out. One little girl was hysterical, worried about the blood drawing sharks into the swimming pool. She wouldn’t get back in the water the rest of the lesson.”

Sousuke erupted into laughter. It was a comfortable conversation, almost like old times, Rin mused, though of course it couldn’t be quite the same—too much time had passed and too many things had changed. But though that had been his fear and the reason why he hadn’t contacted anyone from Iwatobi in the long years since his accident, he felt at ease with it now. They had all changed, yes, but those changes weren’t a hindrance to their friendship. Instead, they gave them more experiences to share, space for their friendships to grow and blossom. Even as they sat and laughed and talked, Rin cursed himself for not letting it happen sooner. 

*

Their lunch break was much too short. In no time at all, the friends were finishing their meals, taking the last swig from their glasses, preparing to say their goodbyes. Rin fought the melancholy sweeping over him as those inevitable signs of parting took place. 

Finally, Makoto stretched back and stood, popping his shoulders. “My shift is about to begin so I need to get going,” he told them. “But listen—I had a great time today, and I think we all did, right?” They nodded in agreement as he looked around the table. “I think we should make this a weekly thing, what do you think?”

Rin glanced at Sousuke. The teal-eyed man quirked an eyebrow at him questioningly, and shrugged one shoulder slightly. The redhead nodded. 

“I’d like that,” he answered. Haru nodded as well, and Sousuke smiled. 

“Great,” Makoto beamed at them. 

They decided to move their weekly lunches to Thursdays at noon, since that was Makoto’s day off and Haru didn’t start working at The Catch until 2 pm. As long as Rin and Sousuke didn’t have an active case, they could take a long lunch break and simply be on call. 

“Gou will be in town this weekend, but I’m not sure how long she’s staying,” Rin said as he pushed his chair back under the table with a loud squeak. “Do you want to get together earlier next week if she’s leaving before Thursday?” 

“Yeah, it would be nice to see her,” Makoto replied. “Just let me know. For now, I gotta run.” 

The other three followed him to the door, but Rin stopped when Sousuke pulled at his arm, telling him without words that he needed to use the restroom before they left. Haru stopped with him, and for a while they were alone in the lobby together. 

“Are you alright?” Haru asked, watching him with calm eyes. 

“Yeah,” Rin answered, confused. “Why do you ask?”

“You looked kind of sad toward the end of lunch.”

The redhead was surprised. Even Sousuke had struggled to recognize the subtle signs of Rin’s depressive episodes after the attack, and Sousuke knew him better than anyone. 

He shrugged awkwardly. “Just regretting the wasted time, I guess.”

Haru nodded thoughtfully, and opened his mouth to say something else but never got the chance. Sousuke returned at that moment. 

“Ready to go?” he asked, looking curiously between the two of them. Haru closed his open mouth and nodded at the bigger man in acknowledgement. 

“Yeah,” Rin sighed, and the two detectives took their leave and walked back to the station in silence. 

*

Yuhara and Takita arrived shortly after they did. 

“Anything?” Sousuke asked, looking up from his computer screen as the two senior detectives stomped in. 

“Not a damn thing,” Yuhara muttered balefully as she stormed to her desk, practically throwing herself into her chair. 

“Seems the people in that neighborhood are oblivious to everything,” Takita said in a calmer tone. “No other witnesses or anything to give us any leads.”

Rin exhaled sharply and reached up with one hand to rub his temple. 

“Nothing here either,” Sousuke said shortly, and the four went back to work, silently pursuing any possibility that they could think of, running searches, requesting information via email. 

An hour later, the phone on Sousuke’s desk rang abruptly. Rin jumped, and even Sousuke jerked in surprise. 

“Yamazaki,” he answered. Faint murmuring floated to Rin’s ears from across the line. 

“Got it. We’ll be right there.” 

The dark-haired man hung up the phone and looked across the room at his partner. “You and I have another case.”

“What? But what about Ai?”

“Takita and I are working the bank robbery,” Yuhara told him, her voice strangely gentle. “That’s why there’s four of us in homicide, so we can split up cases when necessary. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you in the loop on what we find.”

“I’m sorry,” Rin whispered, chagrined. Of course he knew that. He had known that when he was promoted, and he had known what it meant when he and Sousuke were removed as leads from the case. 

“We understand, kid,” Takita told him. “We know this means a lot to you.” He shifted his gaze to Sousuke. “Will you be okay without one of us to supervise if you need advice?”

Sousuke nodded. “I think I can handle it, but thank you.”

Takita grunted. “Good luck, then, both of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no who's dead now?? Hopefully no one we know! Thanks for reading, and feedback is appreciated. :)


	7. Til Death Do Us Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Sousuke work a new case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this one! It didn't go in quite the direction I had initially planned but that's the nature of writing, isn't it? I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

The address Sousuke drove them to turned out to be a pleasant looking apartment building. Rin studied the exterior as he stepped out of the car. Nothing was out of place, and only their vehicle and those of the medical examiner, responding officer, and crime scene technicians showed that anything was amiss. The pair swiftly ascended the narrow metal stairs to the second floor. The door to the unit in question was ajar, and a young officer stood outside it. 

“Detectives,” he greeted them with a nod of his head. “Dr. Ebina is inside.”

The seeming peace of the building’s exterior vanished as they stepped through the door. The first thing that caught Rin’s eye was a strange red stain on the floor near the doorway, complete with splatter marks. He eyed it briefly before his gaze continued on through the room. A small table was knocked over, and glass shards surrounded it: remnants of what appeared to be a broken vase. The dining table was set for two, and a dirty plate sat in front of one chair. Another plate sat on the kitchen counter, this one clean. Next to it was a large pot, and a wine bottle that lay on its side on the counter, red fluid dripping slowly onto the floor. 

The victim was lying on his side, stretched out between the dining table and the kitchen floor, vomit staining the front of his shirt and face. Dr. Suki Ebina knelt next to the prone man, making verbal notes about his body temperature into the recording device she held in one hand. Her eyes flicked to the two detectives as they approached. 

Rin studied the scene. No obvious signs of injury were present, and there was no blood near the body. As they got closer, he recoiled from the man’s face: his lips were blue, and his eyes dilated. 

“Who is he?” Sousuke asked as he accepted gloves from one of the crime scene techs. 

“Asahi Totoya,” the tech replied as he offered gloves to Rin. “52 years old, employment agency manager. His wife is Asahi Misato.”

“Is she here?”

“The responder who took the call said an unidentified woman called for paramedics because a man was having convulsions and collapsed, but no one else was here when they arrived. The door was standing open and the victim was the only one in the apartment.”

“So she fled before the paramedics arrived on scene,” Rin mused, looking about the house. Aside from the mess in the kitchen, the rest of the front room seemed to be in order. A photo on the wall caught his eye, and he moved to study it further. A younger (and alive) Asahi Totoya was standing in front of a tall building with a woman next to him—presumably his wife. She had dark hair and a smooth face, and she held his arm joyfully as they smiled. 

“Don’t assume,” Dr. Ebina said softly as she put her recorder away. “It may not have been the wife who called for help.”

Sousuke grunted. “Good point. I assume he ingested something that killed him?”

“Looks that way,” she replied. “We’ll have to sample his stomach contents to be sure though. But he died not more than thirty minutes ago.”

“Any idea if it was accidental?”

“Difficult to say with the information we’ve got right now,” she told him.

Rin moved toward the front door as they spoke, crouching down beside the red stain. It was an odd purplish color, and didn’t have the sticky look he associated with blood. “What is this?” he called to the medical examiner. 

“Not blood,” she answered. “It seems to be wine.”

Rin glanced at the kitchen where the slowly spreading pool of red wine stained the floor. The color was definitely similar. However, the distance from the kitchen to the doorway seemed awfully large. 

“What’s it doing over here?”

“I couldn’t say,” she said, turning the body over to examine the man’s other side. 

“Hmm,” Rin mused, standing back up. He stepped carefully into the kitchen and looked around. The pot contained a side of meat sitting in a thick sauce, with potatoes piled on top. There were no dishes in the sink and the counter was clean, aside from the pot of meat and the spilled wine bottle. Rin took a brief whiff of the dish. 

“Well?” Sousuke asked, joining him by the counter. 

“Smells like lamb,” he answered, still looking around. He moved back out to the front room, and looked around the dining room table. 

“It’s odd though,” he said, rubbing his jaw idly as he thought. 

“What’s that?”

“Well, if he had company for dinner, the wife or whoever, why is only one plate dirty? And also…”

Dr. Ebina was watching him now as well. “Go on,” she prompted. 

“Well, there’s only one wine glass. Do you think whoever called the paramedics ran out with her wine, and some spilled by the door?”

She looked toward the stain in the front room thoughtfully. “The splatter pattern would be consistent with someone running away from the body.”

“Why would she leave when this man obviously needed help?” Sousuke asked. “And why would she take her wine glass?”

“I believe it’s your job to figure that out, Detective,” Dr. Ebina said archly. Sousuke chortled softly in response. 

“Let’s check out the other rooms while the techs finish up in here,” he said to Rin, and the pair moved toward the short hallway reaching from the main room to the back of the building. 

Sousuke stepped into the small bathroom and began rummaging through drawers. Rin turned into the bedroom. 

“Looks like he was planning a romantic interlude with whoever was here,” he called out into the hallway. The room was filled with candles, wicks black from use. The tapers were still tall, and only small droplets surrounded the upper edge. A jar of a yellowish oily substance sat on the nightstand: the label read ‘lavender sensual body oil.’ A small bottle of lube and four condoms sat on the table behind it.

“The candles look like they were extinguished recently,” Sousuke commented from behind him. Rin murmured his agreement and idly opened the night stand drawer. His eyebrow rose. 

“Why would you keep your cell phone in the nightstand,” he asked, pulling the small black flip phone out of the drawer to show Sousuke. 

“I wouldn’t,” the big man said, reaching out his hand. Rin handed him the phone and continued his brief search through the room. 

“This phone has only called one number,” Sousuke said. “I think it’s a burner phone.” 

“Detectives?” It was the officer who’d been standing outside the door when they entered. “I have the contact information for Asahi Misato.” 

“Excellent, thank you,” Sousuke said, accepting the torn notepad page the officer handed him. “I think it’s time we tracked her down.”

“What if she was the woman here and she’s on the run?” Rin asked.

“Then she probably won’t answer,” Sousuke told him impishly. The redhead rolled his eyes. 

Dr. Ebina was supervising the preparation of the body for transport back to the morgue when Rin re-entered the main room. The crime scene techs were finishing up, and the young officer who had preceded Rin out of the bedroom was waiting by the door with a roll of crime scene tape in hand. The burner phone Rin had found had been packaged in an evidence bag and was in the satchel on the floor beside him. 

Sousuke came out of the bedroom with a puzzled expression on his face, cell phone in hand. “Asahi Misato is a financial advisor,” he stated as he joined Rin. “And she has been at a conference in Kyoto since Sunday evening, lasting for the rest of the week.”

Rin’s heart sank. “So she wasn’t the woman who called the paramedics.”

“Not unless she’s not actually at the conference, which will be easy to check,” the teal-eyed man responded. “But that’s something we can do from headquarters. Let’s go.” 

They nodded politely to the anxious young officer on their way out. 

*

They briefed Yuhara and Takita on what they had found when they returned to headquarters. 

“The wife will be in tomorrow afternoon,” Sousuke announced when they had finished recounting the crime scene. 

Takita nodded. “The autopsy and any fingerprint results from the scene won’t be finished for a few hours at least, so you really won’t be able to do anything with them until tomorrow. What’s your plan for the rest of the day?”

Sousuke glanced at the clock. It was shortly after 5 pm. 

“I suppose we can see if we can trace the burner phone,” he said slowly. “Also track Asahi’s bank transactions and other traceable records, and at least see if his wife had a train ticket or anything.”

Takita nodded approvingly. “Why don’t you work on the phone, and Matsuoka can pull up public records,” he said. “Give it an hour or two and then call it a night.”

The two detectives nodded their acquiescence and got to work. 

*

The next morning they met to discuss what they had learned the previous day. 

“The number that Asahi’s burner phone called seems to be another burner, so we can’t trace the owner,” Sousuke told Rin. “However, the texts are very intimate. I printed the last few days’ worth.” He handed the redhead a printout. 

_Saturday, 7:43 pm_  
YOU:  
>>Wife gone Sunday pm to Saturday am  
>>Anniversary lunch or dinner Tues?

CHI-CHAN:  
>>Of course!

YOU:  
>>K. What time?

CHI-CHAN:  
>>Work until 3. Want to meet after? ;)

YOU:  
>>Sure. Eat early?

CHI-CHAN:  
>>Ya. Makes room for other eating later ;)

YOU:  
>>Naughty girl

CHI-CHAN:  
>>u know u love it

 

_Tuesday, 8:13 am_  
CHI-CHAN:  
>>Happy Anniversary!

YOU:  
>>Happy anniversary. Still on for later?

CHI-CHAN:  
>>Looking forward to it ;)

 

_Tuesday, 3:37 pm_  
CHI-CHAN:  
>>Sorry! Issue came up, running late. Will be there soon.

YOU:  
>>Don’t bother

CHI-CHAN:  
>>:(  
>>Don’t be like that  
>>I’m coming

 

_Tuesday, 3:52 pm_  
CHI-CHAN:  
>>Are you home?  
>>I’m outside  
>>I’m coming in if you don’t come out

 

Rin lowered the page and looked at Sousuke. “So this Chi-chan is Asahi’s lover?”

“So it seems,” the teal-eyed man responded. “Sounds like she was probably the woman in the apartment as well. Asahi also had a note-taking feature on the phone, which had a variety of lists.” He handed Rin another piece of paper. 

Anniversary  
-rosemary marinated lamb and rosemary garlic potatoes  
-need: leg of lamb, potatoes, garlic, pinot noir  
-check rosemary qty  
-buy massage oil  
-gift ideas: sapphire/diamond heart necklace or gucci purse with flowers?  
-Tues 3:00

 

“Gucci purse?” Rin asked, handing the page back to Sousuke. 

The dark-haired man nodded. “Why, does it mean something?”

“Well, Asahi and his wife had joint banking and credit card accounts, but he also had a separate checking account that only he had access to.” The redhead sat down at his desk and rifled through the papers he had printed the previous day. 

“Here,” he said, finding the one he wanted. “Two weeks ago, he made a very expensive purchase from eBay. The item was a leather floral print Gucci purse, 200000 yen.”

Sousuke swore under his breath while Rin brought up the financial record on his computer screen. 

“I know, right? A lot of money for a purse. But that’s why it caught my eye.”

“We didn’t see anything like that at his house,” Sousuke said. 

“Well if it was a gift for his mistress he wouldn’t have kept it in plain sight, would he?” Rin answered. 

“Wait a sec,” said Sousuke, turning to his own monitor. “One of the older conversations between Asahi and ‘Chi-chan’ talked about a gift. I didn’t print it because it was from last week and they had a very awkward sexting session after it.”

“Oh?” Rin asked interestedly. 

“You don’t want to see it, trust me.”

The redhead chortled. 

“Found it,” Sousuke said after a few moments, and turned his monitor around so that Rin could read the conversation. 

_Wednesday, 5:56 pm_  
CHI-CHAN:  
>>Gift arrived. Can I open it? :) 

YOU:  
>>Not until the day

CHI-CHAN:  
>>:( 

YOU:  
>>Don’t even think about peaking

CHI-CHAN:  
>>I’ll still act surprised ;)

YOU:  
>>No  
>>If I can’t have my gift until Tues neither can u

CHI-CHAN:  
>>//pouts

YOU:  
>>no

CHI-CHAN:  
>>I thought you said I was cute when I pout?

YOU:  
>>You are. Still no.  
>>Plus I can’t see you pouting 

CHI-CHAN:  
>>What would you do if you could? ;)

YOU:  
>>You really want to know?

 

“That’s where the conversation got explicit,” Sousuke said as Rin stopped scrolling through the page. “But it sounds like he sent the bag straight to his lover.”

“Makes sense,” Rin mused. “If he had it delivered to his home, his wife may have found out.”

Sousuke nodded. “So if we find out where the purse was shipped, we’ll find ‘Chi-chan’.”

Rin was already typing. “Damn,” he muttered. “I can’t get in to see the shipping info without his eBay password.”

“Well that’s easy, though,” Sousuke said, sounding excited. “We can just subpoena the records from the seller. I’ll work on it. Why don’t you go see what Dr. Ebina has from the autopsy?”

Dr. Ebina, it transpired, had been busy. 

“Detective Matsuoka,” she said in surprise when he walked into her office. “I was just about to call you and Detective Yamazaki. I have the results from the autopsy.”

She led him into the autopsy room. Asahi Totoya was laid out on the table, covered from toes to chin in a long cloth. A small glass sample jar sat on the work bench beside the autopsy slab. She handed it to him. 

“I found these in his stomach, with the undigested remains of his meal,” she said. Rin examined the contents of the jar. Small, greenish flecks covered the bottom centimeter or so. He glanced up at the medical examiner.

“Taxus baccata, or English yew leaves,” she told him in answer to his unspoken question. “It’s an evergreen tree not native to Japan, though the Japanese yew is a close relative. Toxic, results in a variety of symptoms—the blue colored lips, dilated pupils, and vomiting, among others. He likely had convulsions and difficulty breathing before he died. Final cause of death was cardiac arrest.”

“Convulsions,” Rin murmured, handing the jar back to her. “That would explain the broken vase. Why would he have eaten these?”

“They appear to have been used in the dishes he was cooking,” she answered. “Detective Yamazaki said he was planning on two rosemary courses for the evening.” 

Rin nodded, watching her. She went to the fridge and took out a Tupperware container with the lamb and potatoes from the pot in the apartment. 

“We tested the food he prepared, and it seems the yew leaves were used in place of the rosemary.”

Rin was flabbergasted. “Why would he do that? Wouldn’t he notice?”

“I sent my techs back to the house after the results came in, and they found the spice jar. It had been wiped clean of all but the victim’s prints. He was using coarsely ground dried rosemary instead of fresh, and there was just enough rosemary mixed in to give it the right smell. The yew leaves had been dried and ground as well, to blend in. Incidentally, drying is supposed to increase the potency of the toxins in yew.” 

“So it wasn’t accidental,” Rin stated. 

She shook her head. 

“And probably not suicide, either. So it really comes down to, who was the woman who called the paramedics, and was she the one that killed him?”

“That reminds me,” the coroner said as he pondered. “We recovered quite a few prints from the scene. Many were the victims, but two others were identified. I expect we’ll be able to match one set to the wife when she arrives later.”

“But you don’t have a match to the other one?” Rin asked. 

“No, but it will be simple to compare it to a suspect’s prints to see who else was in the house.”

The redhead nodded thoughtfully. “Anything else?” he asked the petite woman. 

“I’m afraid not, at the moment. A technician will be around to collect DNA and fingerprints from Asahi Misato when she arrives.”

Rin nodded, and headed upstairs to tell Sousuke the news. 

*

Asahi Misato bore an obvious resemblance to the woman in the photo Rin had seen, but she was older now, with gray streaks through her hair and bitter lines around her eyes and forehead. Rin stood in the small observation room as Takita led her into the interrogation room. Sousuke followed them in and shut the door behind him, glancing toward the two-way mirror. 

Takita had insisted on being present, though Sousuke would ostensibly be the leader of the interview. Rin was too green to contribute much to an interrogation, and Takita wanted to be in the room to ensure that he could step in if necessary. Thus, Rin was stuck behind the window, watching. 

“Please, have a seat,” Takita said, indicating the chair opposite him. She sat down, looking nervous and unhappy. Her face was pale, and her lips thinly pursed. 

“I’m very sorry to have to bring you here for such a reason, Asahi-san,” Sousuke told her. “We just need to ask you some questions about your husband.”

She nodded, closing her eyes briefly. Her voice was soft, tense, and near to tears. “I understand.”

“What did your husband do for a living, Asahi-san?” Sousuke asked, flipping open his notepad.

“He managed an employment agency. He helped hopeless people find jobs that fit their skills and goals.”

“Was anyone unhappy with him? Anyone he maybe couldn’t find a suitable placement for, who sent threats or anything?”

“No,” she whispered. “I don’t think anything like that ever happened. He wasn’t able to place every person who came through the agency, but he never told me about anyone who was really angry.”

“You left for the conference in Kyoto on Sunday night, correct?”

“Yes. I was supposed to come back Saturday morning.”

“Is there anyone there who can verify your presence Tuesday afternoon?” Sousuke asked solemnly. 

Her listless eyes widened and her brow furrowed. “Why? You think I had something to do with my husband’s death?”

Sousuke glanced at Takita. The senior detective nodded shortly. “It seems he died from yew poisoning, and the chances of it being accidental are slim,” the younger man told her. 

“But…what?” She gasped. 

“Asahi-san,” Takita interjected, leaning forward so that her gaze shifted to him. “It appears that your husband was meeting someone for dinner on the day he was killed. Do you have any idea who?”

She shook her head. “No. He often met with old clients, just to check in and see how they were doing. It kept him and the agency in their thoughts so that when they had stable jobs, they were more likely to come to him for employee requests, or recommend him to their friends who needed a job.”

“He did this at your home?”

“No,” she said, puzzled. “He was meeting someone at our home?”

Takita nodded. 

Sousuke cleared his throat. “I’m very sorry to have to ask you this, Asahi-san,” he said, “but do you have any reason to suspect your husband might have been having an affair?”

“No!” She exclaimed. Rin watched her closely. Her eyes had gone from listless to enraged, and her face was now red, not pale. “No, he wouldn’t do such a thing. How dare you even suggest it.”

“I’m very sorry, Asahi-san,” Takita told her soothingly. “We have to ask though.”

Her nostrils flared, and her lips once again thinned to a tight line. “I understand,” she said after a moment, calmer. She exhaled sharply and looked back at Sousuke. “In answer to your earlier question, my boss can verify my presence at the conference up until you called to tell me my husband was dead. I can provide you with his contact information.”

“We’ll need that,” Sousuke replied. “I’m afraid we’ll also need a sample of your DNA and your fingerprints, for comparison to evidence found at the scene.”

Her nostrils flared dangerously again, but she nodded shortly. “Am I done answering your questions then?”

“One more, if you don’t mind,” Takita said. “Can you think of anything unusual that happened recently? Anything at all.”

She thought a moment. “The only thing that comes to mind was a couple weeks ago, when Totoya called me at the office to say that he had a big surprise coming up, and he was going to cut out all unnecessary connections in order to focus more on our family.”

“What did he mean by that?” Sousuke asked her.

“I’m not sure. I thought perhaps he had finally decided he wanted a child. We’ve discussed it for a long time but he was never ready. And we’re both getting older.” 

“And he didn’t mention it again?”

“No, when I asked him about it he told me to be patient and that all would be revealed with time.” Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Our twenty-fifth anniversary is next week,” she said, eyes filling with tears. “I thought he was waiting for that.”

The two detectives nodded in sympathy. “Thank you for your time, Asahi-san,” Takita said, standing up. “If you think of anything else, please let us know. We are both very sorry for your loss.”

She nodded her acknowledgment, sniffling, and the detectives left. The crime lab technician came in immediately, to collect saliva and fingerprints from the grieving widow. Rin met his partner and Takita in the hall. 

“What do you think?” The senior detective asked him as they walked back to the squad room.

“She didn’t really tell us much,” the redhead replied. 

“Perhaps,” Takita answered. “Sometimes, though, the information you obtain from an interview like that takes time to become relevant. For now, what’s your next step?”

“What’s the status on ‘Chi-chan’s’ address?” Rin asked Sousuke. 

“Still in progress,” the big man replied. “We should have an answer sometime this afternoon, I expect.”

Rin nodded, aware of Takita’s eyes on him. He knew the senior detective only wanted to get him to think about new leads and follow-up procedures, but he felt the pressure of being put on the spot. “I guess one of us can call the contact she gave us and verify her alibi,” he said self-consciously. “And maybe the other can try to find sources for English yew? Dr. Ebina said it’s not native to Japan.”

Takita smiled at him. “Good plan,” he approved, sending a surge of warm confidence through Rin’s body. “You verify the alibi. It’ll be good practice for you.”

Rin nodded, glancing at Sousuke. His partner smiled at him proudly. 

*

It didn’t take Rin long to get in touch with Asahi Misato’s boss, who vouched for her presence in Kyoto from Sunday evening to Wednesday morning when she had left early in response to Sousuke’s call. 

“So she definitely wasn’t the lady who called the paramedics,” Rin said, hanging up the phone. 

“Most likely it was ‘Chi-chan’,” Sousuke rumbled in response. 

“Do you think Asahi Misato really didn’t know about the affair, or was it just an act?” Rin asked. 

Sousuke looked up from his computer screen, meeting Rin’s eyes. “What do you think?”

“She seemed really angry,” Rin recollected. “Angrier than I would expect from just being asked about the possibility of an affair.”

“It’s hard to say,” Sousuke agreed. “And remember what she said, that her husband told her he was going to cut all unnecessary connections and focus on their family?”

“Yeah?” Rin asked. “What does that mean?”

“Well to me it sounds like Asahi Totoya was planning on breaking things off with ‘Chi-chan’, and rededicate himself to his marriage,” Sousuke said. 

“Which might give ‘Chi-chan’ motive, if she didn’t want to end the relationship,” Rin mused in response. 

Sousuke nodded. “It also could have clued Asahi Misato in to the fact that something was going on. If she knew about the affair, then she’d have motive too.”

Rin sighed. “Are all cases this complex?”

Sousuke chuckled. “At least we have leads for this one.”

Rin glanced at the other side of the room, where Takita and Yuhara were standing in front of the white board, both with arms cross over their chest, searching desperately for some sort of clue to the bank robbery murders. He sighed. “Yeah.”

_Bzzz-zzzt._

“What was that?” Rin asked, looking around in confusion. 

“Oops, left my phone on the filing cabinet,” Sousuke said, retrieving it. He glanced at the screen and suddenly grinned widely. 

“Good news?” Rin asked. 

“I’ll say. ‘Chi-chan’ has a name.”

Rin sat up straighter in his chair, fully focused on his partner now. “Who is she?”

“Tancho Chitose. Her address is just outside of town,” Sousuke told him, pulling up her background on his computer. “No criminal record but she does have a driver’s license. She’s 31.”

“So now what?” Rin asked. 

“Now you do some preliminary investigation and then you go see if she’s home,” Takita said, coming over to stand by Sousuke’s desk. He peered at the monitor over the teal-eyed man’s shoulder. 

“Preliminary investigation? Like bank records and whatnot?”

Sousuke nodded. “That’d be a good place to start. We can already connect her to the victim, so we may be able to get a court order to search her home. I’ll find out.”

Rin nodded and pulled the woman’s driver’s license up on his own screen. The photo showed a pretty young lady, with large eyes and a meek smile. He studied her briefly. Was this the face of a killer?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno Rin, is it??? Let's find out!! Thanks for reading!


End file.
